Originally Posted by Sealth

I have a question about ideal spoke tensioning.

I recently rebuilt my Wabi Cycles front wheel at a local volunteer shop. It's a 32H wheel with 14/15 double butted stainless spokes and a 100mm low flange hub. The mechanic said that the true of the wheel was more important than the tension reading, and he suggested that I get the wheel in true with the individual spoke tensions between 15 and 20 (using a Park Tool Tensiometer). I got the spokes all somewhere between 16 and 18 with the wheel as true as I could reasonably get it.

Later, I compared the spoke tension of the rebuilt front wheel to my rear wheel by squeezing them. It seems as if my rear wheel is noticeably tighter, but I would have to use a tensiometer to be sure. Using Park Tool's conversion table it looks like the tension in the front wheel spokes is something between 70 and 90 kgf for my 1.8mm spokes. How does this sound? Could my rear wheel be too tight?